


Build my Anchor from the Embers

by Renaisty



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Action, Angst, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Introspection, Non-Graphic Violence, Possible Character Death, Season/Series 05 Spoilers, Spoilers, i think, seriously beware the big fat spoilers ok?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-25
Updated: 2015-09-25
Packaged: 2018-04-23 08:48:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4870663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Renaisty/pseuds/Renaisty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He is sure regular Alphas do not get tested by people and fate and the universe so much."</p>
<p>  <i>What had happened to them? Their trust was falling, shattering into bits and pieces between too much trust or too little, between a pile of bodies bleeding silver and a liar with a silver tongue…</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Build my Anchor from the Embers

**Author's Note:**

> So this is me, trying to understand how we got to 5x09 and how the whole thing _happened_ even. Trying to make it make sense. ("Writers? Explanation please?") And poor Scott has to be the vessel of my musings...  
>  Then the whole thing _derails_ , because that had always been the idea. I really should try not to get too carried away, because this is a mess, but I needed it out... You have been warned!
> 
> I consider this as taking place in some unspecified future just after getting Lydia out of Eichen House, but before Kira returns.

He'd talked it over with Malia (he didn't have the courage to go to Stiles yet). Then Parrish had come to help them get Lydia back, and froze on the return journey for a few seconds. The deputy had only been able to provide a shard of memory, a fractured image he'd half-remembered, half-dreamt. But it was enough. It told him exactly what happened, and he cursed himself yet again for believing Theo. 

A chimera doesn't, after all, get impaled on a construction beam by a _human_. Not unless it was an accident. 

Parrish had to go back to the station, and he offered to drop off Lydia, who had said they needed to talk. She was shaken, but she would recover, if the bodies littering their path into Eichen House had been any indication. Scott felt a wave of pride hit him at the thought, and when he looked at Liam, who had been so strong earlier even in the midst of his own troubles, heart-related and not alike. Liam had to study for a test, but Scott could see the reluctance to leave. Malia said she had no reason to stay any longer, and he could see her itching to leave, even as her coyote side fought for the opposite. 

The pack had to stay together, to regroup and heal. 

Everyone started to trudge back home. 

Scott stayed where he was, too tired to even blink. The mood should have been festive, but the pack was still not together; not complete. 

Kira had not returned yet, and the world seemed darker, her strength and smile no longer with him. Stiles was home, because Scott had not called when he heard Lydia scream. His minute hesitation had allowed his instincts to take control, urging him to help a distressed pack member. 

Their absence weighted on the rest of the pack, though more on him, as the Alpha. 

Tomorrow, he resolved, they'd talk. Everything would be cleared up and they'd go back to normal, _Scott-and-Stiles_. Like it had always been. Stiles would curse him to Hell for not being there to get Lydia back, Scott would get him to promise to not hide things like that again and… 

But it couldn't. Not so fast. Theo had messed them up so bad (or just exposed what was already there, he didn't know) that they would need more time. 

"…Scott. Scott!" 

"Malia?" he blinked. He'd been so absorbed in his thoughts he hadn't noticed her backtracking. Or the hand she had apparently put on his shoulder. "What is it?" 

"I could smell the stress on you, you know. You have been in a bad state emotionally for a long while now. We all have." 

"So?" he didn't mean for it to come out like that. She looked at him straight in the eyes. 

"So, we all believed Theo. And it burned us all. But Scott, don't blame only yourself. It's all our fault, and we'll work to fix it, ok? Together." 

Then she turned and left, leaving him jarred as to how far _she_ had come too, from the girl who only wanted to return to her coyote den in the woods. 

However, not blaming himself was not an option. He, as the Alpha, had trusted Theo, and the pack had followed. Only Stiles had never trusted him, and the almost laughed at the cruel irony that because of it, it was Stiles that lost Scott's trust in the end. 

Oh he blamed himself, and the dread doctors with their experiments and _Theo._ He was _angry_ , still, so _angry._ At himself, and at _Stiles._

Stiles hadn't _said_ anything. All that time, and not _one_ word. As if he thought Scott would condemn someone because of an accident. As if he'd give up on _Stiles_. As if Scott, who _wasn't_ perfect, no matter what Stiles thought, would look at him with disgust and refuse to be his friend, his Alpha. 

He had let it fester, Scott growing increasingly concerned with everything that was happening and with how _Stiles_ was hiding something that was tearing him apart, leaving a vulnerable Scott to Theo's lies, without telling him the truth. So yes, he was angry at Stiles. 

Stiles who never once tried to explain what happened. Scott lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling, still unable to figure out _why_. Why the entire time they were talking, he'd never thought to utter the words _'I didn't mean to'_. Why insist on the threat to the sheriff's life, like Stiles's _own_ life was not _worth_ it somehow? 

Or did he think Scott already knew? Did he think that he was being condemned for doing everything he could in self-defence? Everything a _human_ could against a chimera? 

Which brought him back to his previous point, that Stiles would think so little of him. When had that happened? When had his best friend assumed that Scott _wouldn't_ always have his back? Had Stiles, in his attempt to give no one the benefit of the doubt, done the same about Scott too? Thought he knew how Scott would react, never thinking to question it? 

Why had _he_ himself not asked? Not verified that what he'd been told happened had really happened? 

When had Scott _himself_ stopped giving everyone the benefit of the doubt? Or, well, not _everyone_ , just the ones that really mattered, apparently, like Kira and Stiles. When had Scott begun trusting Theo's word above his best friend's? Someone who had been with him through thick and thin, through everything from nasty teachers to lycanthropy, not faltering even after Scott had lost control and attacked him? Saved him from himself by trying to help, figuring out Scott's _anchor_! 

What had happened to them? Their trust was falling, shattering into bits and pieces between too much trust or too little, between a pile of bodies bleeding silver and a liar with a silver tongue… 

… 

Scott woke up with a scream echoing through his mind. He momentarily panicked, scared that his mum was in danger, calming down when he remembered she was at the hospital. Then the panic came back full force when he recognised the scream. 

_Lydia_ 's scream. Only there was something wrong with it. 

He couldn't put his jeans on quickly enough. He opened his window, only to find Theo waiting in the backyard, like a statue in the shadows. Around him, Scott could hear three other heartbeats; he smelled the poor, disoriented kids Theo had resurrected, all of them confused, not understanding, just blindly following him. Now their heartbeats were stronger, more sure, even if they still were as confused and vacant. 

Theo stepped into the moonlight and turned silver from its glow. The small smirk on his face was enough provocation for Scott to attack. He growled menacingly, vaulting into the air from his windowsill, teeth and claws already out, his eyes burning a brilliant red. 

"You really should better protect the human of the pack," Theo said smugly. 

Scott froze where he landed, snarling a loud "WHAT DID YOU DO?" 

Even before he had said anything, though, Theo had continued, raising an eyebrow in faux consideration. "But, well, I guess he _was_ part of the pack…" 

"He _is_ part of the pack!" Scott growled low, dangerous. Stiles had been part of his pack before he was a werewolf, before he was an Alpha, for as long as he remembered himself, and that couldn't change with only a misunderstanding, however much it divided them and however miserable it made them. 

"No, Scott, he _was_ in your pack, whichever way you look at it." 

Then one of the chimeras threw _something_ at him, something still and cold that he reflexively caught because it had a familiar shape. 

A red hoodie he could've sworn was lost in the laundry. White, so white it approached luminescence, even whiter than usual against his own skin. 

Cold, empty whiskey eyes, staring at nothing. 

No that couldn't be true. He would've smelled it before, should've _felt_ something! Even now, the scent of _pack_ on his best friend's cold body was faint. When, how, why… 

His mind supplied the answers reluctantly. They'd left. They'd left to go get Lydia, and Scott _hesitated_ and his instincts pushed him to go, and only Mason was left to go to the Stilinski's house and inform them, as the Sheriff wasn't working and Scott wanted the rest of his friends together. 

He saw red. 

He heard a growl that was purely animal. 

This was the final straw, Theo had pushed his luck far past anything that could be forgiven. 

Theo had hurt them all, and he's the Alpha and he must defend them must defend Lydia and Liam and Malia and Kira and _Stiles_ and he _failed_ he failed and they're all hurting and he's hurting and Kira left because she would hurt them and _Stiles_ knew he knew and the Alpha didn't listen because he trusts and _Stiles_ didn't because he doesn't and well too bad _Stiles_ not all of us can be a True Alpha not even this Alpha because all the Alpha can see is red and see the banshee look at nothing and the beta crying, and the coyote screaming and trapped, and the kitsune leaving and th- _Stiles_ looking broken in the rain and shouting that he's just a human and not a True Alpha and they're all suffering in the red with him and they're- shouting? At him? _'Don't do what?'_ , the Alpha wants to ask… 

And then Scott can see past the red. 

Theo is almost dead, his 'pack' poised to spring into action, but unmoving. A single blow would be enough to kill Theo. Even without it, should he not get help, he could die. Scott's hand, claws dripping blood, is raised to deliver the killing blow. But he can't, not when they're all telling him not to. 

And he might not be perfect, because he's human, but he still can see the little kid from so long ago, even under all the blood, and he thinks maybe that makes him human too. 

His hand drops. 

The chimeras whisper something about _weakness_ with derision, and start dragging their 'Alpha' away. All Scott can do is gather the body of his best friend in his arms and cry. 

A few minutes later, the body turns to dust. 

… 

He is sure regular Alphas do not get _tested_ by people and fate and the universe so much. 

Scott is running like his life depends on it, and it might actually be true. Stiles isn't picking up, because the universe hates him, or it was another part of the stupid _test_ or whatever the display with Theo and the fake body was. 

A test Scott is pretty sure he failed, if _'weakness'_ was a failure. 

His whole pack failed, stumbled on the huge obstacle that was Theo and the Doctors, lost trust in themselves and each other, but it will be alright. They'll recover and come back stronger than ever. 

He finds Stiles's phone on the roof, likely left by the chimeras or Theo to make sure no one would answer, and Liam's scent as he left with Mason earlier. 

He can hear two heartbeats inside the house, and that slows his own heart to an almost normal tempo. He sits there, outside, content to watch his best friend breathe and not be as still as a corpse. 

An instinct he doesn't want to control urges him to visit the home of every pack member. He makes sure they're alright and breathing and _alive_ and leaves as quietly as he came. H even goes to his own, leaving a note for his mum. 

The last stop is the Stilinski house again and this time, he gently opens the window that he knew would not be shut tonight. He slips in and takes a seat in the computer chair. 

Tomorrow, they will talk, and they can begin piecing the pack together again. 

… 

They've survived worse. A crazy Alpha, a mutated werewolf and a psychotic hunter, a dark druid and a whole _pack_ of Alphas, an ancient demon and a horde of professional killers. 

They'll survive this too. 

**Author's Note:**

> Yes I know I changed the tense, it's intentional.  
> Figures my first TW fic would make no sense at all and be a sorta Sciles bromance full of pack feels and angst...  
> Also, don't know if it shows, but I worked with this beautiful thing Tyler Posey said at a comic con, (I'm like 90% sure it was comic con):  
>  _"The pack is my anchor."_


End file.
